5 Ways to Keep your Denim Looking New for Longer

How I Care for my Denim so it Looks New for Longer

My love for denim has been well documented on these pages, so it will come as no surprise when I confess to being a total jeans addict. Each season, I have to clear space for another denim drawer in my wardrobe; I can’t stop buying them, or wearing them.

Jeans however are a tricky clothing item. I am constantly on the quest to find the perfect pair – it’s like an ongoing fashion treasure hunt, and as the seasons change and styles change, jeans shopping becomes even more difficult. Do you go for a classic pair? Can you find an affordable pair that cut it? Do you follow the denim trends? I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure I could have financed half a mortgage with the denim collection I’ve invested in over the years.

As for finding the perfect pair, a couple of styles from a surprising retailer have recently ticked all of my boxes. Affordable, high quality, comfortable, flattering, and easy to care for. The retailer in question is Hollister. Previously my go-to for comfortable layering pieces and lounge-wear, I recently was tempted into trying out their denim offering after noticing how fabulous one of the shop assistants looked in her beaten-up denim jeans.

I picked up a few pairs. I don’t like trying on in store any more, so I thought I’d take a few home and take back the ones that weren’t right. Let’s just say, I didn’t take any of them back! The ones I’m wearing here are the High-Rise Jean Legging Style. They are made with Hollister’s signature Advanced Stretch material so feel more than comfortable for any of my other denim jeans, and are great even for long haul flights (I wore them home on the 8 hour trip from Barbados to London). The stretch material means they fit the body perfectly, I find them flattering and a classic, timeless style.

They also have super skinny black denim, as well as low rise jeans (currently down in the sale!) and flares – an option for every different denim desire. As well as many, many styles, each one has up to 30 size options; you choose your waist size and the length, meaning that you can find your ideal style in a perfect fit.

Shop My Hollister Denim Favourites

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Shop My Outfit

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Making your denim last – especially that prized pair that make you feel fabulous when you wear them, is very important. Fading, stretching, shrinking – it’s the worst. But despite the tradition of not washing your denim (which, by the way, is totally outdated to the stiff denim reserved strictly for cowboys in the wild west!) we do have to was our jeans, especially ones like my Hollister favourites so that you can avoid the dreaded sag at the knee or bum. You know what I’m ta;king about! Washing your favourite jeans helps them get their shape back as well as the obvious benefit of keeping them fresh and clean/

With just a little extra care, you can keep your denim looking like a brand new pair for a long time. Here are the five things I do to keep my denim in top shape.

Wash On Cold. I always wash my jeans on 30 degrees, and turn them inside out which helps the colour to last longer.

Use Colour Safe Detergent. You can buy denim specific ones, but I just use one that mentions that it’s colour safe.

Reshape While Wet. If you shove them on the dryer with twists or folds in them, they aren’t going to look so great the next time you wear them.

Hang Dry. On that note, never put your jeans in the dryer. Some denim can be a bit stiff when you wear them for the first few times, but don’t let this tempt you to tumble dry. They will shrink and fade, and degrade the fabric making them wear much much quicker.

Colour Boost. If and when your denim fades, you can always add some dy eto the wash to brighten them, or add black dye to turn a really worn-out pair into a new set of black denim.

I’ve been doing this since I can remember (even telling the other London College of Fashion students to do it this way while I was in uni halls!) and although I’ve purchased many pairs of jeans over the years, none have really ‘worn out’.

Have you got any tips for keeping your denim looking it’s best? Have you tried Hollister denim before?

xoxo

This post has been created in collaboration with Hollister, but as always, all opinions my own!